Biologists have discovered that the evolution of a new species can occur rapidly enough for them to observe the process in a simple laboratory flask.
In a month-long experiment using a virus harmless to humans, biologists working at the University of California San Diego and at Michigan State University documented the evolution of a virus into two incipient species—a process known as speciation that Charles Darwin proposed to explain the branching in the tree of life, where one species splits into two distinct species during evolution.
“Many theories have been proposed to explain speciation, and they have been tested through analyzing the characteristics of fossils, genomes, and natural populations of plants and animals,” said Justin Meyer, an assistant professor of biology at UC San Diego and the first author of a study that will be published in the December 9 issue of Science.“However, speciation has been notoriously difficult to thoroughly investigate because it happens too slowly to directly observe. Without direct evidence for speciation, some people have doubted the importance of evolution and Darwin’s theory of natural selection.”
Meyer’s study, which also appeared last week in an early online edition of Science, began while he was a doctoral student at Michigan State University, working in the laboratory of Richard Lenski, a professor of microbial ecology there who pioneered the use of microorganisms to study the dynamics of long-term evolution.
“Even though we set out to study speciation in the lab, I was surprised it happened so fast,” said Lenski, a co-author of the study. “Yet the deeper Justin dug into things—from how the viruses infected different hosts to their DNA sequences—the stronger the evidence became that we really were seeing the early stages of speciation.”
“With these experiments, no one can doubt whether speciation occurs,” Meyer added. “More importantly, we now have an experimental system to test many previously untestable ideas about the process.”
To conduct their experiment, Meyer, Lenski and their colleagues cultured a virus—known as “bacteriophage lambda”—capable of infecting E. coli bacteria using two receptors, molecules on the outside of the cell wall that viruses use to attach themselves and then infect cells.
When the biologists supplied the virus with two types of cells that varied in their receptors, the virus evolved into two new species, one specialized on each receptor type.
“The virus we started the experiment with, the one with the nondiscriminatory appetite, went extinct. During the process of speciation, it was replaced by its more evolved descendants with a more refined palette,” explained Meyer.
Why did the new viruses take over?
“The answer is as simple as the old expression, ‘a jack of all trades is a master of none’,” explained Meyer. “The specialized viruses were much better at infecting through their preferred receptor and blocked their ‘jack of all trades’ ancestor from infecting cells and reproducing. The survival of the fittest led to the emergence of two new specialized viruses.”
Learn more: Biologists Watch Speciation in a Laboratory Flask
[osd_subscribe categories=’speciation’ placeholder=’Email Address’ button_text=’Subscribe Now for any new posts on the topic “SPECIATION”‘]
Receive an email update when we add a new SPECIATION article.
The Latest on: Speciation
[google_news title=”” keyword=”speciation” num_posts=”10″ blurb_length=”0″ show_thumb=”left”]
via Google News
The Latest on: Speciation
- New monoclonal antibody vaccine slashes malaria risk in childrenon April 30, 2024 at 8:19 pm
A recent study demonstrates that the monoclonal antibody-based vaccine L9LS is safe for children aged 6 to 10 and significantly reduces the risk of malaria infection and clinical symptoms by 70% and ...
- Adaptation of photosynthetic mechanism in air plants occurs through gene duplication, study findson April 30, 2024 at 6:31 am
Researchers at the University of Vienna, along with collaborators from France, Germany, Switzerland and the U.S., have achieved a breakthrough in understanding how genetic drivers influence the ...
- 11 Grand Rapids Breweries to Grab a Pinton April 29, 2024 at 10:47 am
Grand Rapids has proudly held the title of Beer City USA. In 2009, author and homebrewing pioneer Charlie Papazian created the Beer City USA poll, aiming to gauge “community spirit and support for ...
- New study reveals potential cellular mechanism behind cognitive decline in Alzheimer'son April 28, 2024 at 7:04 pm
Researchers have developed a robust method for identifying rare brain neurons that re-enter the cell cycle, offering insights into their role in cognitive disorders such as Alzheimer's disease.
- Genomic analysis of a species of zooplankton questions assumptions about speciation and gene regulationon April 26, 2024 at 6:40 am
When two animals look the same, eat the same, behave the same way, and live in similar environments, one might expect that they belong to the same species.
- New butterfly species created 200,000 years ago by two species interbreedingon April 20, 2024 at 10:56 am
Researchers have shown that an Amazonian butterfly is a hybrid species, formed by two other species breeding together almost 200,000 years ago.
- Our unique lineage: Human evolution has run in complete reverse from other vertebrateson April 18, 2024 at 2:11 pm
In This Article The Many Humans of the Globe As our species (Homo sapiens) evolved and spread across the globe, they were contemporary with several other hominins. These include the best known of our ...
- 'Bizarre' Finding Changes the Way We Think About Human Evolutionon April 18, 2024 at 12:49 am
Human evolution might be more "bizarre" than we once thought, according to a new study. In the past, scientists believed that hominin evolution was largely driven by changes in climate. But now, ...
- Interspecies competition led to even more forms of ancient human -- defying evolutionary trends in vertebrateson April 17, 2024 at 7:42 pm
Competition between species played a major role in the rise and fall of hominins -- and produced a 'bizarre' evolutionary pattern for the Homo lineage -- according to a new study that revises the ...
via Bing News